Breeding Crayfish

[D4MI4N]

Thinking about breeding crayfish to feed a bowfin. Looking into it a bit, it seems they vary quite a bit between species.

Looking for a species that breeds often, requires minimal (or at least manageable) care, and that bowfin find tasty.

Suggestions?

 

[guppy]

Try Louisiana reds, the ones they raise as food. My reasons are the grow quick, breed prolificly, are easily found online, and are cheap. They are cannibals so you will need to give ythem room and lots of hidey holes. I'm thinking a lined 8'x12'x1' hole in the ground with a pond pump and a couple of 5g bucket filters would let you grow plenty. just cover the bottom with 4" long pieces of 1 1/2" pvc pipe and the top with bird netting. They will eat dry cat/dog food, fish pellets, table scraps, etc and regular addition of a little iodine would apparently help. while you are at it you could throw in a few dozen cheap guppies or platys. These will also help control the mosquito larvae.

 

[D4MI4N]

I was actually thinking even smaller scale than that, like in a 30 gallon (long: 36") aquarium. It's only to supplement the diet of one bowfin, so one or two prolific pairs should do nicely.

 

[D4MI4N]

If you could think of a species that would breed in a 10 gallon, that would be even better.

 

[guppy]

I don't know of any off hand, they are very cannabalistic, Can you catch them locally? If you can trap a couple of egg carrying females and keep them in your unheated tank with lots of hiding spots. pvc pipes again. Might work. If nothing else it would be fun to try and if it fails you have at least a couple of feeders.

 

[ahmiao]

try lowing the temp. it works well!

 

[unknownuza13]

Do the egg carrying females by chance carry the eggs on her body? At the fish store a few of the crayfish had egg like well eggs on their body. I did not buy them to feed to the puffer because I thought they were something bad..

 

[rayman45]

under there tail they hold eggs

 

[FUB]

1. Tank should be 2 ft and above.
2. Put in 3 male 3 female of size 9-10 cm and let them pair by itself.
3. Use PVC, ceramic / flower pot, stone structures.
4. Temp 26 -32 'C lower the better.
5. Change 50% in a month and wash filter every week.
6. Feed carrot & high calcium food about 1-2 time/week.

When pairing, the male & female tummy will stick together. The male will sperm on the female's 4th-5th pair of legs as sperm bag. 2 days later, the female will lay eggs. The sperm bag will break & stick on the eggs. During the hatching the eggs will change colour so need not worry about it. 5-7 weeks later, u'll c 7-8mm babys swimming independenly.

The live span should be about 1 year and up to abt 1 ft in size.

 

[guppy]

They carry brownish green eggs under their tails. Check out FUB's posting. I haven't tried that but it all looks good. I wonder if they need iodine supplements.